A Summery Splash of Color: Art abounds around metro Detroit to wrap up season | C & G Newspapers


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsDesigning SummerExhibitions

METRO DETROIT — Looking for a way to entertain the family during these last few days of summer vacation? We’ve got you covered. Across metro Detroit, galleries and museums are hosting events and exhibitions to entertain and educate visitors of all ages. Just in time to bid farewell to summer, Cranbrook Art Museum is getting ready to celebrate the close of its Michigan-made exhibit, “Designing Summer: Objects of Escape.” According to Shelley Selim, assistant curator of the Jeanne and Ralph Graham Collections at Cranbrook, the show highlights the tradition of outdoor fun in Michigan during the summer. “It all sort of materialized when we received a gift of 20 picnic posters designed by Steve Fryholm, who graduated from the (Cranbrook Academy of Art) and worked for Herman Miller,” she said. “(The posters) advertise the annual company picnic; they’re beautiful and incredibly graphic images of summer picnic food like sweet corn, grilled chicken, fruit salad ...

Tagged: Designing Summer, Exhibitions, Michigan, Shelley Selim

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“Designing Summer: Objects of Escape” featured on Ixiti.com


Cranbrook Art Museum in the NewsDesigning SummerExhibitions

Whether along one of the Great Lakes, any of the numerous inland lakes, or the Detroit Riverfront, it is an undeniable fact that Michiganders spend their summer by the water. Going Up North is a standard phrase, and an even more common occurrence, whether for a long weekend or a week’s vacation. These locations epitomize the summer goal of escape, of leaving one’s cares (and responsibilities) behind. Designing Summer: Objects of Escape at the Cranbrook Art Museum through August 30th traces the evolution of the modern concept of summer vacations in Michigan, and how many of the objects that contribute to this notion of leisure time have their roots in Michigan. Beginning in the 1950s, a road trip or a visit to a state park was an easy means of escape. Exhibition curator Shelley Selim notes that the mid-century “was a period when Americans had an unprecedented amount of leisure time ...

Tagged: Designing Summer, Exhibition, Michigan, Pipsan Saarinan, Shelley Selim

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